PACE Launch Scrubbed for the Second Time
High Surface Winds Prevented Pre-Flight Checkouts
NASA and SpaceX scrubbed the launch of the PACE environmental satellite for the second time early this morning.
SpaceX announced the scrub on X. "Due to ground winds preventing pre-launch checkouts, we are now targeting Thursday, February 8 for Falcon 9 to launch PACE. Vehicle and payload remain healthy, and teams will continue to keep an eye on weather, which improves to 95% favorable for liftoff," the company said. That countdown is now progressing towards 1:33 am EST on Thursday.
That was not the only SpaceX scrub this week. The company also scrubbed the launch of a batch of Starlink satellites from Vandenberg AFB yesterday, and plans to make another attempt to orbit those satellites today. Again, weather was the culprit in that scrub.
In a related development, the AX-3 crew have departed from the International Space Station aboard a Dragon capsule. They are scheduled to splash down in the Atlantic ocean off the coast of Florida on Friday. That departure was also delayed a day due to poor weather conditions in the splashdown zone.